Zanzibar Bishop Euplectes nigroventris

Introduction

The Zanzibar Bishop was formally described by John Cassin, an American ornithologist and curator of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences.

It is not known who collected the Zanzibar Bishop. The earliest record of the type specimen is in the possession of Victor Massena, Duc de Rivoli, Prince d'Esling, a French amateur ornithologist living in Paris. Rivoli had a large collection of birds, about 12500 specimens, which were bought by the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, formerly the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (ANSP), the oldest natural science research institution and museum in the New World.

The collection arrived in Philadelphia in September 1846 (Stone 1899) and Cassin described many of these specimens as new bird species, including the Zanzibar Bishop.

The first illustration of a Zanzibar Bishop is a colour painting published by Cassin 1849. The second illustration was published some 80 years later, a black and white photo of a nest and specimen by Bowen 1931.